Kerry Has Strength, Smarts, And Honesty

It took me a while to decide who to support for president, but I think it has got to be Kerry.

There are three qualities I think are important for our president: strength, smarts, and honesty.

Strength and smarts seem to be a good package deal --ne without the other is of no use. No matter what you think about how strong Bush may seem, when you put strength and smarts together, I think he comes up short. He has made too many mistakes in key areas --ven if he refuses to recognize them. He may have had good intentions in moving to a quick war with Iraq, but the place is now a real mess because of mistakes he and his administration made. I for one do not feel safer now.

The other big area for me is economy. Bush inherited a huge surplus, and now we have a huge deficit. This is really a tax on our sons and daughters, and another big mistake that Bush has to be accountable for. Kerry has his own problems, but to me, the debates showed that he is not the wishy-washy guy the Bush campaign has painted for us.

I think he wins on the strength and smarts package.

Honesty is the first important quality. Unfortunately, in any election campaign these days, I guess the best we can expect is distortion, half-truths and mudslinging. To my eyes, both sides are equally guilty when you look at campaign ads and spin. Too bad, but that's the way it is.

However, if you move past the campaign, there are some other things that really disturb me about President Bush. I just don't think he has always been straight with us about the facts.

Everyday, it seems we learn of events where the president has held back on being totally honest with us --n the shaky intelligence that was the support for the quick war with Iraq, on the lack of any real link between Iraq and the 9/11 attack, on the true cost of his Medicare reform bill, and on how much influence corporate lobbyists have had in shaping his energy policy.

In too many cases, he has tried to manage the facts to suit his own political purposes. I, for one, believe that the American people can handle the truth, and we deserve it.